I like to joke that the King James Version of the Bible is the one Jesus used.
I don’t quote the KJV very often, but sometimes, it hits home due to cultural usage and history so much more clearly than some of the more recent academic translations. This week’s epistle seems like an appropriate opportunity to use the shortest verse in KJV.
Jesus wept. - John 11. 35
Last week during Youth Sunday school, we ended up on the topic of compassion in the midst of justice. I don’t know that we got to the scripture, but we were engaging in a conversation that could easily be supported through Jesus’s teaching of “turn the other cheek.”
Read MoreThe United Methodist Church (UMC) is not traditionally a creedal faith tradition, nor do we subscribe to particular dogmas or statements of faith. The UMC has often been celebrated as a “big tent” church with a wide spectrum of theologies allowing for diversity of thought, diversity of faith, and diversity of community. John Wesley once said, “Though we may not think alike, may we love alike.”
Read MoreAlmost all casinos have a few things in common: no windows, plenty of lights and mirrors, and a significant amount of noise. Once you walk in the doors, the establishment wants you to feel a sense of excitement, hope, and high energy. And so, they pump it at you artificially from the moment you enter to the moment you leave.
On Sunday, December 22nd, we had the joy of celebrating the ritual of baptism. There was song. There was crying. There was water. Overall, I thought it was wonderful even if the baby cried a little because he woke up in the arms of a stranger putting cold water on his head. (There are some fairly amusing comics and memes online about this aspect of baptism.)
As we prepare for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I’ve been thinking a lot about family expectations and social expectations. Holidays often come with a wide variety of internal voices telling us “you should do this” or “you should’ve said that.” It’s hardest when these internalized voices now come in our own voice instead of those who introduced those family and social expectations. I have a friend that says it’s me “should-ing all over myself.”
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